Cima da Conegliano

Giovanni Battista Cima, also called Cima da Conegliano (c 1459 – c 1517), was an Italian Renaissance painter, who mostly worked in Venice He can be considered part of the Venetian school, though he was also influenced by Antonello da Messina, in the emphasis he gives to landscape backgrounds and the tranquil atmosphere of his works Once formed his style did not change greatly He mostly painted religious subjects, often on a small scale for homes rather than churches, but also a few, mostly small, mythological ones

He often repeated popular subjects in different versions with slight variations, including his Madonnas and Saint Jerome in a Landscape His paintings of the Madonna and Child include several variations of a composition that have a standing infant Jesus, which in turn are repeated several times

Giovanni Battista Cima was born at Conegliano, now part of the province of Treviso, in 1459 or 1460 His father, who died in 1484, was a cloth-shearer (cimator), hence the family surname

Only scarce documents allow to rebuild the painter's life The date of birth of the artist (1459 or 1460) is not ascertained, but deduced from the coneglianese estuary of 1473, in which a Joannes cimator is appointed: the painter had to have at that time fourteen years, since this was the age In which he began to pay taxes on his own, according to the laws of the Venetian city

Because of the absence of sources, the artistic training before 1489, the date of the first painting attributed to him, is unknown He moved to Venice around 1489 where he opened his shop Of the year 1494 there are some payments made to the artist Other payments date back to 1499, 1504 and 1510

In 1488 the young painter was at work at Vicenza; in 1492 he established himself at Venice, but by the summer of 1516 he had returned to his native place Cima married twice, his first wife, Corona, bore him two sons, the older of whom took Holy orders at Padua By Joanna, his second wife, he had six children, three being daughters

Between 1500 and 1515 he probably lived between Venice and Emilia In Parma, Bologna, Carpi were commissioned works for some churches, such as the Madonna and Child among the saints Michele Arcangelo and Andrea of 1505 and the Sacred Conversation of 1513

His presence at Conegliano, where he spent the summers, is documented for the last time in 1516 He died between 1517-1518, probably in Conegliano, where his home remains, today the Casa museo di Giovanni Battista Cima

His oldest painting inscribed with a date is the Madonna of the Arbour (1489; now in Museum of Vicenza) This picture is done in distemper and savours so much of the style of Bartolomeo Montagna, who lived at Vicenza from 1480, as to make it highly probable that Cima was his pupil Even in this early production Cima gave evidence of the serious calm, and almost passionless spirit that so eminently characterized him Later he fell under the influence of Giovanni Bellini and became one of his ablest successors, forming a happy, if not indispensable link between this master and Titian

Works:
Among the major exporters of Venetian art culture in the Venetian backdrop of the Serenissima, with its pictorial style characterized by a sophisticated classicism , Cima is generally considered, by art historians, a pupil of Giovanni Bellini Other recognizable pictorial influences are those of Antonio Vivarini, Vittore Carpaccio, Giorgione and Marco Palmezzano

His artistic production focuses on the sacred representations and his main figurative themes are:

Madonna with the Orange Tree (c 1487-88) - Tempera on panel, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Baptism of Christ (1492) - Oil on panel, San Giovanni in Bragora, Venice
Annunciation (1495) - Tempera and oil on canvas, 1365 x 107 cm, Hermitage, St Petersburg
St Helena (1495) - Panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington
Maria with Child, Mary Magdalene and St Hieronymus (c 1495) - Wood, Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Madonna of the Orange Tree (c 1495) - Tempera and oil on panel, 120 x 139 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
Madonna and Child Enthroned with St Peter, St Romuald, St Benedict, and St Paul (c 1495-1497) - Tempera on panel, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Madonna and Child (1496–1499) - Oil on canvas, Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia
Madonna and Child in a Landscape (c 1496-1499) - Oil on panel, transmitted to canvas, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
Virgin and Child (1496–1499) - Oil on wood, National Gallery, London
Presentation of the Virgin Mary at the Temple (c 1497-1500) - Oil on wood, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany
The Virgin and Child (1499–1502) - Oil on wood, National Gallery, London
Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and John the Baptist (c 1500) - Oil on panel, National Art Gallery, Washington, DC
The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Anthony of Padua (c 1500) - Oak panel, The Wallace Collection, London
Incredulity of St Thomas with St Magnus Bishop (c 1505) - Tempera and oil on panel, 215 x 151 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
St Sebastian and Saint Roch (1500–1502) - Diptych, Oil on panel, 1165 x 47 cm each, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, Strasbourg
Christ among the Doctors - Warsaw National Museum, Poland
Saints Peter Martyr, Nicholas of Bari, Benedict and an Angel Musician (1504) - Oil on panel, 330 x 216 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Madonna and Child (c 1504) - Tempera on wood, 66 x 57 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Virgin and Child (1504–1507) - Louvre, Paris
Virgin and Child (c 1505) - Oil on wood, National Gallery, London
The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne (c 1505-10) - oil on wood, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan
Montini Altarpiece - (c 1506-1507) Panel, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
Virgin and Child with Saints Paul and Francis (1508–1530) - Oil on wood, National gallery, London
Adoration of the Shepherds (c 1509-10) - Tempera on panel, Santa Maria del Carmini, Venice
Virgin and child with St George and St James (1510–1511) - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, Caen
Virgin and Child withs St John the Baptist and St Mary Magdalene (1511–1513) - Tempera on panel, 167 x 110 cm, Louvre, Paris
Virgin and Child with Saints Sebastian, Francis, John the Baptist, Jerome, Anthony of Padua, and an Unidentified Female Saint, and Two Donors (c 1515) - Oil on panel, Harvard University Art Museums, Massachusetts
Virgin with Child and St John the Baptist and St Francis - Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon
Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors (c 1515) - Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Saint Peter Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and Paul (c1516) Oil on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
The Deposition - Oil on panel, Pushkin's Art Museum, Moscow
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